Contents

Introduction

This guide should help you install and configure the proprietry graphics drivers from ATI. This guide applies for ALL versions of fglrx - it was made before the (rather dramatic) 8.8.25 January 05 release, but it is maintained such that all versions should work.

Please be aware that -mm and -rc(1,2,3,4,...) kernels often break fglrx due to unexpected changes in syntax, etc. If you want to use ati-drivers, use the stock gentoo-sources or at the very least, a STABLE 2.4 or 2.6 kernel!

Don't forget to compile, install, and reboot into the kernel. Directions for this are beyond the scope of this file; if you need help recompiling the kernel, click here.

Grabbing a Driver Set

For installation it will be easier to drop out of X to a command prompt. Do this using whatever command your Window Manager uses.
I use fluxbox so it's just rightclick -> fluxbox menu -> exit. For KDE or GNOME it's probably just a matter of logging out. When all else fails, hit CTL+ALT+BACKSPACE to kill the X server ungracefully. If the X server only reboots or for some reason you've disabled this hotkey, log in as root and type init 3 to bring the system run level down.

Thanks to portage, installing the drivers is easy. If you have not already done it recently, start by synchronising your portage tree:

If for some reason this command doesn't work (the script isn't found), then try manually executing the script from its default location:

/opt/ati/bin/fglrxconfig

Now, let's get back into X.

startx

Open up a command prompt and run:

fglrxinfo

If the OpenGL vendor string says "ATI Technologies," then congrats! You've got the drivers working and hardware acceleration going great. If not...read on...

Troubleshooting

Config Files

By default, the driver uses the Internal AGPGART. Sometimes the internal one doesn't work, and you will have to use the one provided with the kernel. Search your xorg.conf for the line that has the option "UseInternalAGPGART." Simply change the "yes" to "no."

File: xorg.conf

Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"

Now simply add the modules to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.x where x is your kernel version.

Also, try changing the MonitorLayout option. The default is "AUTO, AUTO", which is to say X will attempt to autodetect what kind of monitor you've got on the first and second display heads. This can theoretically fail (though I have never observed it). Try changing it around a bit. For example, if you have an LCD and no secondary monitor, change the line to read:

File: xorg.conf

Option "MonitorLayout" "TMDS, NONE"

if you have a CRT, simply replace "TMDS" with "CRT".

Crashes on startup

If you are unable to use any 3d applications and get this error instead:

Then you do not have tmpfs mounted on /dev/shm, which the driver requires. To mount this, add to following line to /etc/fstab (if it isn't there already):

File: /etc/fstab

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

Then just do a:

mount /dev/shm

If the drivers still crap out on you, or for example you get a black screen on X init, try going into your system BIOS and change graphics-related stuff around. Believe it or not, for me my 9800 gives a black screen on X init if I have the AGP Aperture set at anything other than 128MB. I don't know what causes this, and I don't care; I'm just relating to you how I overcame my problem ;)

Also, whenever you update your compiler, you must recompile your kernel otherwise you won't be able to insert the fglrx module. Note that recompiling your kernel means you must also unmerge/emerge ati-drivers!